Blackheart's Revenge: a Talk Like a Pirate Day Story
by Daedaleopsis
Summary: The gang are all space pirates! Heavily influenced by ST:TNG, Firefly & POTC & dedicated to our favorite 'ship: Shenny.


**Not one but two days late, a dollar short (not that I get paid for this), and I'm sure I blew past whatever word count limit there was. Hey, pirates don't follow the rules! Happy TLAP Day!**

* * *

"Welcome aboard th' Blackheart, ye scurvy landlubber," the captain greeted the newest member of his crew. "I'm Captain Sheldon 'Cutthroat' Cooper."

She came to an abrupt halt and dropped her bags onto the decking with a metallic thud. "I think I've got the wrong ship," she replied slowly.

A petite blond poked her head out of the hatch a few feet beyond the captain's ramrod-straight back. "Avast, ye bumblin' bilge rat! Look smart, and I'll show ye where to stow yer duffle," she announced in a high, girlish voice. "They call me Barnacle Bernie," she added cheerfully as she came down the docking bay to greet the newcomer. "But you can just call me Bernie. It's short for Bernadette, but since I signed on as the cabin boy…" She grinned mischievously at the newcomer.

"I…" The taller blonde glanced back over her shoulder for a moment, as if contemplating her escape. Then she snapped into a crisp salute. "Sergeant Major Penelope Queen, lately of United Planetary Armed Forces, reporting for duty."

"Oh, sweetie, you signed up. You're one of us now," Bernie corrected.

"I was lead to believe this was a licensed salvage vessel-"

"Salvage," the captain cut in with a contemptuous sniff. "We take what we want, and we give nothing back. We're the canniest pirates that ever sailed the seven seas."

Penny was looking confused again. "Seas? But this is a space ship."

"Uh, I'll explain later," Bernie said at the same time that the captain said, "We're space pirates, and pirates need seas to sail."

"Okay," Penny said carefully. _What the hell,_ she thought. She'd gladly left the military life behind. Serving as security officer aboard a jack-of-all-trades vessel had sounded like a good idea at the time. She decided she'd give it a few days. If it didn't work out, they could drop her off at the next trading post. Shouldering her bags, she followed the petite blonde. Once they were out of earshot, she asked, "So what's with all the pirate talk?"

"Oh, it's just a little glitch in the captain's programming. You heard he's a cyborg, right? So we all talk like eighteenth century pirates, and it keeps him happy. It's kind of fun, once you get used to it."

"Or deranged," Penny countered. "Can't you fix it... him?"

"No. From what I hear, he's much better than he used to be."

She did a double take. "I don't understand. Why would you take orders from someone who's not... stable?"

"It's just a minor quirk, and there's no one better at this game than Sheldon Cooper. That's why we take orders from him. A few more years serving under him, and we'll all be rich enough to do whatever we want."

Penny didn't reply, but she wondered if it was too much to hope that it would only take months rather than years.

As she started her first shift, she met the rest of the crew. Leonard Hofstadter (Landlubber Lenny) was the first mate and ship's doctor. Bernie's boyfriend, Howard Wolowitz (Hurricane Howie) was the ship's engineer. The silent, dusky-skinned man with a sweet smile was Rajesh Koothrapali, the ship's navigator (Rumswillin' Raj). Penny was instantly dubbed "Queenie". The captain informed her, with a gleam in his eye, that epithet was reserved for a particularly "toothsome wench". She didn't know whether to be offended or flattered by that remark. But since he was one of the few men she'd met who seemed capable of holding a conversation with her and keep his eyes from drifting lower than her face, she decided to let it go.

Penny settled into her duties quickly, finding the easy-going lifestyle a welcome change of pace from military life. Even calling out, "Aye-aye, sir!" or "Hard a'port!" was something she adapted to quickly. The military certainly had its own lingo, so the salvage ship wasn't that different. But the captain was a mystery to her, one that she felt compelled to solve.

The rest of the crew were fairly easy for her to read. Landlubber Lenny's fawning attention to her was an obvious attempt to make up for his feelings of inferiority. Howard may have once been the same, although his relationship with Bernie seemed to smooth over the worst of his flaws. Raj, incapable of talking to women without the aid of alcohol, had his own issues, but he treated Penny with courtesy.

Sheldon was a different breed. He was arrogant, haughty, convinced of his own superiority, and the problem was that most of the time, he was right. Yet there was something fragile about his persona, something both vulnerable and a little damaged. She shouldn't have found it intriguing, but she did. The strangest part was that as the weeks passed, she found herself doubting that he really was a cyborg as he claimed. As cold and robotic as he attempted to act, sometimes he seemed motivated by something other than logic. Penny suspected the truth was hidden in the past at which Bernie had hinted. As she tried to figure it out, she grew closer to the captain, or Sheldon, as she called him, having staunchly refused to salute or call someone by rank now that she was free of the military.

The other part of the puzzle had to do with the crew. There was an odd tension between the rest of the hands and the captain. Bernie was the only exception and seemed completely oblivious to whatever undercurrents existed.

* * *

"Another successful plunder," Hurricane Howie gloated as the Blackheart glided away from its disabled prey. "I don't know how he does it, but the captain's got all the cargo ships quaking in their boots. Most of them strike colors as soon as we run up the Jolly Roger, so to speak."

"It's just math, identifying the most vulnerable targets. Any one of us could do the calculations," Leonard said crossly as he tallied up the last of the inventory. They had intercepted a ship hauling a cargo of the latest nanochips. Sheldon had gloated over them, ran his hand through a crate of them and called them doubloons and pieces of eight.

"Would he really have spaced the cargo ship's crew if they didn't surrender?" Queenie asked, curious.

Uneasy glances were exchanged among the other four. "He's a cyborg; he truly doesn't care about the rest of humanity," Leonard offered. "Does that bother you?" He sounded as if he hoped it did.

She laughed. "I'm ex-military, and I always found their principles a little too... confining."

He shrank back, and Penny grinned wolfishly at him. From the moment he laid eyes on her, he had developed an unrealistic crush on her, which had only become more inconvenient and annoying over time. She was trying to dissuade him of his fantasies before she had to take drastic action, but the situation was getting ridiculous. A few days ago, he had refused her access to the ship's medical stores after she made the mistake of telling him what she wanted: her yearly birth control supplement. He may have temporarily prevented her from a casual hook-up at the next space station, but that didn't make her any more likely to fall for his clumsy compliments and longing glances.

The onboard tension grew until Queenie read subtext in every look or word. Finally, she decided that a conversation - a very private one - with the captain was wanted. Although she had never done so before, she visited him at his quarters.

"Captain, I need to speak with you on a matter of security," she began, hoping that using his title would make him more disposed to listen to her theory.

Sheldon was bent over a digital display, but at her words, he straightened. "Of course. Ye have me permission to enter." She found his words oddly formal, but as she stepped forward, she was repelled by a force field. The shock rattled her teeth; she tasted blood where she'd bitten her tongue. "You could've warned me," she growled.

He raised a nonchalant eyebrow at her. "This is me room. Not even me hearties are allowed in me room." He placed his hand along the wall near the door. With a static buzz, the force field dissolved. The extreme measures to which he went to bar people from his room were yet another example of the deep disquiet that haunted the Blackheart.

She entered and paced restlessly. "There's something wrong aboard this ship, a tension below the surface. For all the pirate speak, this isn't the Jolly Roger or any other jolly ship. Whatever it is that no one will talk about… it's a problem. More than a problem, it's a powder keg waiting for a match. And somehow, you're at the center of it."

He flinched and stared at her coldly. "I owe you nothing, least of all an explanation. Ye're under my command. Return to your post."

"I'm off duty, _sir_ ," she answered. "But I came to you as a friend. I'm worried about you. If this situation goes south-"

"It won't. Yer concern is duly noted, but I have already taken appropriate measures. Now... get out."

She left, shaking her head and swearing under her breath. The mystery only deepened.

* * *

A few days later, she arrived on the bridge to begin her next shift. Raj was at the helm. When he saw her, he pulled a flask from his pocket and quickly took a sip. "Did you hear? We're taking on passengers - scientists."

Penny stared at him. "Passengers," she spat. "We're a pirate ship; we don't take on _passengers_. This is a bad idea. As security officer, I don't approve."

Raj shrugged. "They're scientists. The captain used to be one too, you know." He quickly closed his mouth and looked guilty.

Penny eyed him suspiciously. She knew this was part of the mystery that none of the crew would talk about. But she would get nowhere by putting them on their guard. "No big deal," she said casually. "I've seen the way the captain pours over the ship's sensor logs. I don't think he ever stopped being a scientist."

Raj nodded, looking relieved.

The passengers boarded the next day and consisted of a man and a woman, and two hulking, muscle-bound "assistants" whose dull gaze made it seem like they'd need to remove their shoes to count to twenty. The short, dark-haired man spoke with a ridiculous lisp. In her mind, Queenie immediately dubbed him "Lispy Kripke". The scowling woman in the orthotic shoes inspired any number of epithets, but in the end, Penny decided that simply calling her by her surname of "Fowler" (or fouler) was enough of an insult.

The scientists immediately began to cordon off an area of one cargo bay. Leonard spent the better part of two days in close conference with them. Yet for all their whispered conversations, they seemed in no hurry to set up any equipment. Penny felt as if she were constantly being watched. She argued twice more with Sheldon to take them back - hell, to blow them out the nearest airlock - but he refused. Apparently, he knew these people from a long time ago, and he trusted them. It was a fatal error.

Their true colors were revealed quickly enough in the form of one of the huge neanderthals invading her quarters in the middle of the night. Penny woke instantly at the soft pneumatic whoosh of the doors opening. She edged her hand under her pillow, where she always kept a small plasma pistol. It was in her hand and she was rolling off the bed when a searing pain immobilized her, and she slumped unconscious to the floor.

A few minutes later, she awoke, grateful that the hired muscle didn't have orders to kill her outright. She was bound and gagged, lying on her side in the cargo bay. Wincing, she sat up and looked around. There was no sign of her captors. She wobbled to her feet and stumbled to the nearest tool locker. Within moments, she had cut through her bonds with a laser spanner. Fortunately, the laser had cauterized the wounds on her wrists. A faint chime alerted her to someone entering the room. It was Fowler, holding a plasma rifle as if she'd never seen one before. Penny slid behind a support beam and waited until she came close, then launched into a savage attack. The flurry of spin kicks and punches was hardly necessary; Fowler went down with the second blow, but Penny was furious. The wretched woman wouldn't be getting up again anytime soon.

She crept out of the cargo bay, peering carefully around corners as she tried to think where she should go next: the bridge? Engineering? Crew quarters? Then she noticed a drop of blood in the corridor. Her stomach plunged to her feet as she desperately hoped that the person who was wounded was one of the traitors.

The trail of blood drops led to sickbay. Penny entered the area crouched low, with her weapon drawn. She gasped as she spotted the figure of the captain slumped against one of the medical beds. "Sheldon, are you hurt?" she called out. In the dim lighting, she could see that he was bleeding from a cut on the back of his head.

To her shock, he began to chuckle. "Mostly just my pride," he replied as the laughter turned to something that sounded more like a sob.

She rummaged through some drawers and found a package of sterile gauge. She ripped at the plastic and pressed the gauze gently against his forehead. He winced.

"Sorry," she muttered. "What happened?"

"It was Leonard," he growled, sounding very unlike his usual, stoic self. "He knew me before… knew how to expose my weakness. He took out my chip." Sheldon showed her a tiny microprocessor, cradled in his hand. Before she knew what to say, he reached out and brushed a lock of hair off her face. "You're so beautiful… and so kind. I didn't care about those things before." His gaze flicked downward, taking in her skimpy pajamas, before traveling back to her face.

A chill ran down Penny's spine. "Sheldon, this isn't like you. What are you talking about?" she whispered.

"Years ago, there was an incident. The details aren't important, but Leonard was involved. He said it was all my own fault. Regardless, I ended up with my career in ruins. In retrospect, I blamed the fact that I had trusted someone I thought was a friend rather than making a rational choice. I decided I never wanted to do that again, so I volunteered for an elective procedure." He gestured at his forehead. "I had a neurotransmitter chip implanted which inhibited all brain activity from the amygdala. Essentially, I turned off my emotions, and then I started over, someplace far away. Somewhere that I thought my past would never catch up with me," he added softly.

With a soft murmur of sympathy, she reached for his hand. Thus distracted, she didn't hear the soft tread on the carpet behind her, but the brief agony that lit up her nervous system was all too familiar.

This time, when she awoke, she found herself inside a small enclosed space. Sheldon was sprawled on the floor beside her, but he moaned, clearly coming round. She looked around, recognizing the capsule as one of the escape pods. _Holy crap, this is bad_ , she thought.

"Oh, good," came a disembodied voice. "I'd hate to see you leave without saying goodbye."

Her head snapped up to see Leonard waving merrily at her through the viewport. So they hadn't been jettisoned yet. It was a small consolation.

"Much as it grieves me to let you go, I've come to the conclusion that you will never love me the way I love you," he continued.

"Love you? Are you insane?" she snapped. "I can't stand you."

"Oh, no, I'm afraid the one who's truly insane is right next to you. He's the one who couldn't handle a little professional setback. He's the one who had a mental break and started to think he was a pirate. But even insane, he was good for something. At least his piracy was making us rich. Then you came along and ruined everything. Despite that damn chip in his head, he was starting to have feelings for you, feelings that threatened to overwhelm the suppressor. If that happened, we'd lose our meal ticket." He sighed. "It wasn't an easy choice, of course, but I had to cut him loose. Make him walk the plank," he laughed nastily. "Now that the Blackheart has a reputation, we can take most ships without firing a shot. We really don't need him anymore, and you... you were a liability from the start. A beautiful liability, but a problem nonetheless. We could have had beautiful babies together," he said regretfully.

"I'd tear you to pieces with my bare hands and feed you your testicles before I strangled you with your own intestines," she snarled.

"Oh, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be," he answered, still in that cheerful tone.

"Leonard," Sheldon had risen to his feet, although he was leaning heavily against the side panel of the pod. "We used to be friends once. I even forgave you for what you did to me. Why are you doing this?"

Leonard smiled, but now there was such malice in the expression that even Penny shuddered. "You know the expression, keep your friends close and your enemies closer? We were never friends, and if you'd had any sort of human feeling, you would've recognized it. Your cluelessness just made it easier for me to use you, but now I'm afraid you've outlived your usefulness."

Kripke's head suddenly popped up over Leonard's shoulder. "So wong, Coopah! With all the ships you've wobbed and the people you've killed, I hope you wot in hell!"

Sheldon narrowed his eyes at both men. "You first," he said in a voice so cold that Penny began to wonder about Leonard's claims that he was insane. Then there was a sudden jolt, and they were thrown to the ground as the pod accelerated away from the ship.

Sheldon looked rather alarmed to find himself laying on top of her. He disentangled his limbs from hers and got up. A quick search of the escape pod revealed that it had been stripped of anything useful, with one exception. In a storage compartment under a seat, he found a plasma pistol with one charge.

He groaned, holding it up. "Two marooned castaways and one shot between them."

Penny cursed like… well, like a sailor. When she calmed down, she narrowed her eyes at him. "You're a genius, even if maybe you are insane. Can you fix the pod, change our coordinates, something?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Leonard is no fool. He knew exactly what he was doing. The pistol is worthless. He wanted us both to suffer. Within the next thirty-six hours, if one of us doesn't commit murder or suicide, we'll both run out of oxygen."

Penny cursed some more, punched the wall, and then paced the six feet between the built-in seats, shaking her hand and wincing. Eventually, she turned to him. "Tell me why he hates you. I knew something was wrong. Everyone was so secretive, and you... why did you tell everyone you were a cyborg? Bernie said she thought you came with the ship, like a piece of furniture or something."

After a long pause, Sheldon began talking, staring out the viewport as he spoke. "We worked together - me, Leonard, Howard and Raj - at one of the top research facilities in the alpha quadrant. I thought they were all my friends, so when I got a prestigious grant, I didn't hesitate to invite them along to aid me in my work. I never shared credit," he said fiercely, pinning her with an angry glare. "They _knew_ that. It was _my_ theory, _my_ brilliance that earned that grant, and they should have been content to simply be a part of the team. Instead, they grew jealous, or perhaps they always had been. They sabotaged my experiment, tricking me into thinking I had made the discovery of the millennium. After I had announced my find to the galaxy, they revealed their treachery to me. I was discredited; my reputation was destroyed. In the resulting scandal, all four of us lost our jobs. I... I couldn't handle the shock, the humiliation, the betrayal. I had a colleague who was working on a prototype neurological inhibitor… Amy Farrah Fowler. Her work was risky and experimental. The odds of my surviving the procedure were only fifty-fifty, but I couldn't live with myself anymore. Fortunately, the surgery was a success. I used the last of my savings to purchase the Blackheart. Leonard, Howard and Raj were still talented, competent, and willing to take a chance with me as their captain." He shrugged. "In the absence of any emotion, it seemed like a logical decision. I thought with nothing left to lose, they would be loyal to me out of a sense of obligation, if nothing else."

Penny bit her lip. "And then because you were so good at what you did, you _gave_ them something to lose, and for the second time, they destroyed what you had worked so hard for. And all you ever wanted was for someone to like you for who you were," she said softly.

She stepped closer to him until they were almost touching. "I like you just the way you are," she told him simply. His eyes lit with curiosity and something more. Her hands slid up onto his shoulders, and his gaze dropped to her mouth. His hands bracketed her waist as she drew closer, and then she kissed him. His lips claimed hers in a way that was tentative and explorative. She was having none of that. Pressing close against him, she tangled her tongue with his. The soft moan he made only turned her on more. Without breaking their kiss, she backed him up until he collapsed onto a bench, and she was straddling his lap. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but she would make it work.

When she began to undo the fasteners that held his uniform closed, he hesitated. "I've never done anything like this before," he confessed.

"It's okay; we can take it slow," she replied. Although he had never been good at interpreting facial expressions, there was something in her smile that made him want to cry. "But… clock's ticking. We only have a few hours left. Let's make them count."

He nodded and reached for her again, taking the time to explore every inch of exposed skin. He found the sensitive spot behind her ear and heard her moan as his fingers caressed the nape of her neck. She writhed against his lap and begged him to touch her, take her. His smile turned gloating. "You're at my mercy. Shall I make you walk the plank?"

She chuckled wickedly. "Just wait and see what I do to your plank."

He shivered in anticipation and suddenly, he couldn't wait any longer. He shoved the straps of the camisole off her shoulders, pulling down her top. As his long fingers teased the sides of her breasts, there was a tiny metallic clink.

Sheldon froze. "What was that?" he asked.

Penny was ready to scream in frustration. "Nothing, it was nothing - hey!" For suddenly, her would-be lover turned his back on her and started groping around on the floor.

She glared at his back, thoughts of keelhauling coming to mind.

Quickly, he straightened and held up a tiny metal object. "Penny, do you know what this is?" he cried.

"Of course I know what it is. It's my security code wand, not that it'll do me any good now," she grumbled, crossing her arms.

"This emits a low resonance oscillating frequency. If I can just create an asymptotic feedback between this and the pistol's power cells…" What followed was a lot more technobabble, but Penny got the point. There was a chance - slim, perhaps, but a chance - that they might not die. She pulled up the straps of her pajama top and wished she could feel a little happier about it.

* * *

Three hours later, they guided the escape pod into a secondary cargo bay in the Blackheart. Against incredible odds, they had made it back to the ship. Fortunately, Sheldon had been right in assuming that the inexperienced new crew wouldn't change course. His ship was exactly where he calculated. The two of them headed straight for a weapons locker. Armed to the teeth, they searched the ship. One goon was taken down at the entrance to engineering. Sheldon scowled noiselessly to see Howard there, working at the controls. He shot him in the back on the highest stun setting and moved on. Then they found Raj and Bernie locked in their quarters.

"Let us come with you; we can help," Raj urged. Sheldon shook his head. "Until we incapacitate the rest of the mutineers, it's not safe. Neither of you has ever had any weapons training. Stay here."

"Have you seen my Howie? I don't know what happened to him," Bernie whispered worriedly.

Sheldon and Penny exchanged glances. "He's safe," Penny told her.

They found the rest of the traitors in the ready room, near the bridge. A tactical error, Penny saw at once. Limited visibility, only one entrance - they didn't stand a chance. Within seconds of them bursting in the door, Leonard, Kripke, Fowler and the remaining goon lay where they fell. Raj and Bernie helped tie them up and drag them to the nearest airlock. But when they got to engineering, Bernie saw her boyfriend lying on the floor and immediately burst into tears.

"No, please don't hurt him. They must have threatened him. Howie's a good man," she pleaded.

Sheldon's face darkened. "Ask him about the monopole experiment," was all he said. Penny personally bound his hands and feet and then hogtied him, but she left him where he lay.

She found Sheldon by the airlock, pumping in the gas that would revive the mutineers from their stunned condition.

"Do you have anything to say for yourselves?" he demanded as his prisoners stirred.

Leonard paled. "You can't do this. We've been friends for years!"

"That's not what you told me," Sheldon answered sternly.

"You need that chip back in your head. You're not acting rationally. You don't want to live like this!" Fowler cried.

"What, like a human being?" Penny sneered. "He's not a cyborg, or a robot. A"t least the chip gave him some excuse for acting the way he did. What was yours?"

"You're just jealous. I've always been the bettah wesearchah," Kripke sneered.

Penny met Sheldon's eyes. "Scurvy dogs, the lot of 'em."

He nodded gravely. "Dead men tell no tales." And with that, he pushed the button and stood watching until the three tumbling bodies vanished into the depths of space.

Sheldon immediately changed their course, heading for the nearest star base for a complete workup of his ship. He transferred Howard to a holding cell. Uncertain of his former friend's complicity in the mutiny, he decided to leave him at their next stop.

When he finally returned to his quarters, he found Penny sitting on his bed, waiting for him. He frowned, glanced at his door.

"The force field was easy to disarm once I knew it was there," she said with a smirk.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"We have unfinished business," she answered. As she stood, the top of her uniform fell open, and he could see she wore nothing underneath. Like a lioness, she prowled toward him, deadly and beautiful. Her arms went around his neck, his mouth sought hers hungrily, and they sank onto the bed in a sensual embrace.

* * *

The next day brought them to the star base, where, true to his word, Sheldon let Howard go - after promising to shoot him point blank the next time he laid eyes on him. Bernie stood at the docking port, clearly torn.

"He's not worth it," Penny told her. "I know you have feelings for him, but sometimes that's not a good enough reason to stay with someone."

Bernie's face was pale and tear-streaked, but she nodded. Once she heard the story of Sheldon's past, she knew she couldn't stay with a person who could ruin someone's life and then still pretend to be their friend.

"You know, Raj is kind of cute," Penny said, bumping Bernie with her shoulder.

Bernie looked up at her with a small but genuine smile. "Yeah, he is, isn't he?" They both laughed.

Penny didn't see Sheldon all that day, but she figured he was busy with repairs and upgrades for the ship. He'd trusted her with the task of hiring some new hands and upgrading their security systems. When she saw him the following evening, she paused, frowning, and studied the way he carried himself.

"What did you do?" she asked in a low voice. She struggled to draw a breath as he returned her gaze without a hint of emotion. "No! No, Sheldon, why did you do it?"

"Without the chip, I can't be a good captain. I killed three people that I knew because I was angry… and scared. And the way I felt about you… how can I have a security officer that I refuse to put into any danger? How can I continue to explore the universe if I allow feelings to cloud my judgment?"

Her voice shook. "You'd have to be like every else, I guess. You can be a human being and a captain, I know you can." She reached for his arm. "I'd help you," she added softly.

He regarded her impassively. "I need time to process everything that happened the past few days. I hope you will consider staying on. I have come to greatly rely on you."

She stared at him and then squeezed her eyes closed for several seconds. When she opened them, her expression was as blank as his own. "Are we still going to pillage and plunder?" she asked.

He nodded gravely. "Aye."

"Then I'll stay."

* * *

Six weeks later, Penny entered the captain's quarters once again. "I can't stay," she said.

A slight frown appeared on Sheldon's face. "You're my first mate now. I need you."

"Someone else needs me more."

"I don't understand. Is this a family obligation? You led me to believe you had no other obligations."

She laughed, a joyless sound. "Yeah, family - you could say that. Things change, Sheldon, and... you didn't."

"So your issue is with me."

"No, my issue is with that stupid chip of yours." She muttered, sparing one sidelong glance at his bed. "I'm pregnant. Remember how Leonard wouldn't let me access my birth control? I just figured I'd pick some up at the next base, but by then it was too late. It was stupid of me, I know. I didn't think it through. And before you ask, I'm fine with what we do for a living, and I'm fine with the idea of raising a child on a ship. What I'm not fine with is giving my child a robot for a father. I'm sorry. I know you didn't want this. So if you just let me go on my way, I'm sure I'll - we'll - be fine."

Sheldon just looked at her for a long time. "A son," he finally managed. "I'm going to have a son... or a daughter." He drew closer to Penny, and then jerkily, as if he had forgotten how, he raised his hand and caressed her face. She raised wondering eyes to his. "If my emotions are strong enough, they exceed the chip's ability to suppress my emotions. And I _feel_ …. pride and love, not fear. I don't need the chip anymore. Don't leave, Penny. I love you."

For a moment, she didn't react. Then she threw herself into his arms. "I love you, too," she whispered. "I guess I will stay after all."


End file.
